Jesus Crucified

"And they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced" (Zachariah 12:10).

A great crowd had once gathered round Mount Golgotha to look upon the crucified Lord, "from the distance" (Mark 15:40). Jesus had cried his last and had expelled His divine life-force. at that point, He was left to die alone, albeit in a morbid spectacle.

In the eyes of the Romans, He was merely a social deviant, suffering a fitting punishment for subverting the Roman hegemony. In the eyes of compatriots, He was an affront and an intolerable nuissance, because He had challenged the status-quo. In the eyes of His once loyal followers, He was an utter failure who had failed to inaugurate the Kingdom of God on earth.

But in the eyes of His true followers, His death was the beginning of a new life. In any case, whoever they were, and whatever they had seen, "every eye" has "seen" the crucified one (Revelation 1:7).

The event of the crucifixion was a universal event. The entire world from thence has already seen the crucified Son of Man. And we are continually in the process of seeing it.

The cross was a symbol of imperial brutality fabricated to instill shock in the hearts of the future dissidents of the empire. It was a sadistic artifice to deter any individual who dares to think to challenge the empire and its whole policy. It was the epitome of death and violence.

Jesus took that which was shameful and violent and transformed it into a life-giving symbol of our redemption, our freedom, and our eternal resting place. In death, there is life, in life there is death. In reality, there is no such thing as death...there is nothing but life!

This truth clearly shines from the despised cross...